A black car turns the corner and he turns around. I see it is him. I am just about to call out to him when all of a sudden he starts running. But not like me. He is running like the devil is on his tail. Down the street he turns another corner. The car speeds up and follows. Right then I know he is running from them. I run down the same side street trying to see what is up, but by the time I get to the same corner, both Brian and the black car are gone. I stop running and look around. Damn.
So I head back to my grandmother’s house. Now I am thinking about Brian and Jalisa. She never talks about him anymore, but I know she thinks about him. As soon as I walk in the door I smell food. I go in the kitchen and my grandmother is cooking and Ms. Charlotte is sitting there with her. “Good morning,” I say. Both of them look up at me. Ms. Charlotte has red eyes. She’d been crying. She mutters good morning, and then half smiles as she looks down at the teacup in front of her.
“Good morning,” my grandmother says, smiling. “What are you doing dressed like that?”
“I went running this morning.”
“This early in the morning?” she asks, surprised.
“I had some things I needed to work out in my head and running helps me. There was a lot of people out this early so I was okay,” I say. She nods, then I look at Ms. Charlotte. She’s still looking at her teacup. “Ms. Charlotte, I just wanted to say I’m sorry about your brother. I didn’t know him well, except to wave and say hi. But he seemed like a really nice man.”
She nods and smiles. “He was. Thank you so much.”
“Okay, I’m a go get dressed for school. Remember I have to work tonight, Grandmom, so I’ll be in late.”
I go upstairs wondering what Ms. Charlotte is doing here so early. My grandmother’s usually up and in the kitchen, but I’ve never seen her with company this early before. Anyway, I get dressed, say bye and walk to school. On the way I see Cassie. We look at each other. She is with two other girls, and she glances over at me. I don’t say anything and neither does she. We’re definitely not friends anymore. Unfortunately, this is the odd day so that means she’ll be in my last period class.
My early classes are okay. I get through them without much drama. But now I’m basically sleepwalking through the rest of them because I’m so tired. I guess running before school wasn’t such a great idea, ’cause all I want to do by sixth period is fall asleep and that’s not a good idea in U.S. History.
So I’m yawning and in a daze trying to stay awake as Ms. Grayson hands the quizzes back from last week. Surprise, surprise, I aced it. “Is this class boring you, Ms. Lewis?” she asks when she puts my quiz on the desk. “Nah, I’m just tired,” I say, then expect her to go into one of her rants about being prepared for class also means being mentally prepared. But she doesn’t. She just nods and continues passing the quizzes out.
When she finishes, she starts talking about something and how some dead guy did something else to some other dead guy and we should all be happy ’cause the dead guys changed everything for us. Blah, blah, blah. Really, could this day get any longer?
So about a century and a half later, the bell rings. Finally, it’s the end of the day. Everybody jumps like it’s the start of a race. I leave class quickly hoping to get out as soon as possible. Apparently Cassie had the same idea ’cause she is right in front of me. I hurry to my locker, but I see Troy already there at his. He’s by himself for once. I walk up. He doesn’t say anything at first and neither do I. We stand there side by side doing our locker thing. Then he starts. “You think you’re really smart, don’t you?”
I know he said something and that he was talking to me ’cause he stopped what he was doing and turned in my direction. There was a lot of noise in the halls, so I didn’t really hear what he said the first time. “What?” I say.
“You think you’re really smart, don’t you, or do you really think I’m that stupid?” he asks.
Okay, how am I supposed to answer that? “I never said you were stupid,” I immediately correct.
“True,” he says, then leans in closer so I can hear exactly what he is saying. “You just assumed it because I play football, right? Well guess what, Kenisha? My grade point average is four-point-two. My IQ was a hundred thirty-five when I was in the ninth grade. I knew exactly what you said the other day. I used to read medical journals like comic books when I was ten. So trust when I say, the teenage part of my brain is very well-connected to my hearing.”
Shit.
“The only reason I didn’t go to that lame private school with your boy LaVon is because their football team is a joke. And it would be just too damn easy to shine. At least here I have a challenge or two. Yeah, that’s right, I know your boy. We had the same classes in elementary and middle school, but right now I choose to be here,” he says. I guess I looked shocked. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“No, should I?”
“Yeah, you should. We went to the same schools in Virginia. Then my cousin was in some of your classes at Hazelhurst. You know my cousin.”
I seriously don’t know who he’s talking about.
“Yeah, that’s right. The one you fought that got your ass here. So the next time you want to get up in my face, I suggest you bring your boy with you, ’cause I don’t mind kicking a girl’s ass.”
Shit.
He slams his locker door and turns to leave, and for some strange reason I decide now is a good time to speak up. “Big deal,” I say.
He turns back and glares at me. I know if he hits me just once I’ll be in a coma for the next seven years. “Yeah, that’s right. I said, big deal,” I hear myself repeating.
“You got a serious beat down wish, don’t you?”
“You’re smart, really smart. Fine, I get it. So, why don’t you act like it? You walk around here pretending like some cookie cutter jock from a stupid TV show. Why?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Nah, not good enough,” I tell him. “I bet nobody here even knows about your grades, do they? Not even your boys.” I know I’m right just by looking at his smug expression. “See, why would you even do that?”
“Like I said, I have my reasons. Don’t tell me, the pubes-cent fragments of your minuscule cerebral has disconnected from your auditory receptors?” he asks, repeating exactly what I said to him before.
I laugh. “Okay, very funny,” I say. “Yeah, I heard you. It just makes no sense, and if you ask me, that’s not all that smart.”
He looks me up and down and shakes his head as he chuckles. “You know you trippin’. I just told you I would kick your ass and you gonna jump up at me. Are you crazy?”
“Oh, please, it was an empty threat and you know it. See, I know your little secret now and if you’re as smart as you think you are, then it’s more fun for you to have me around to watch you play your mind games on everybody else,” I say. He starts laughing really hard now. It was just like I thought. His ego is way bigger than his so-called intelligence.
“A’ight, bet,” he says, walking away.
I stand there shaking my head. This place is such a trip. I gather the rest of my stuff and get ready to close my locker. That’s when I see Sierra and Cassie walk over. They stop at Troy’s locker. Cassie glares at me like she has something to say. Seriously, I don’t need this drama right now, so I just keep pulling my books out. “You just can’t keep your hands off shit that don’t belong to you, can you?” Sierra says.
I turn around. Sierra is standing there with her fists balled on her hips, eyeing me. Cassie is at her back smiling. I really hate that bitch. “What are you talking about?” I ask.
“I’m talking about you and Troy,” she says, as if I should have already understood what she meant.
“I was just talking to him, that’s all.” Seriously, I’m not about to be fighting some girl over some guy, especially a guy that I could care less about.
“Talking to him about what?” she asks indignantly.
Okay, here’s the part where I u
sually just get pissed off and go off on her, but I knew this wasn’t about Sierra and me. It’s about Cassie standing there with her. I know she set this shit up. It has her dumbass wannabe drama written all over it. “We were talking about his cousin, Regan. We got into it at Hazelhurst a few weeks ago.”
“You did that?” she asks, half smiling, apparently appreciating my work.
“Yeah, I did that,” I say.
“That was you who yanked her weave out?”
“Yeah, so, Sierra, if you’re thinking I’m talkin’ to Troy, then you and I don’t have an issue. I don’t want him, never did and never will and he sure as hell doesn’t want me.”
“That’s not what I heard,” Cassie mutters close to Sierra’s ear as she turns, acting like she didn’t say anything.
“Then you heard wrong, Cassie. And if you think you want to step to me, I’m here. Don’t be trying to get Sierra to do your fighting for you. I will seriously kick your ass and you damn well know why. And I don’t need no friggin’ trophy to do it. Now you think you bad, you want a piece of me, come on.” I shove everything back in my locker and slam the door, waiting for her to step up.
There is a moment of silence as other students start gathering around waiting. I swear high school teens can smell a fight about to go down from two miles away. Now all of a sudden there’s a mini crowd standing around us. Sierra looks at Cassie, who is still looking at me. “I thought you said she was trying to play me,” Sierra says.
Cassie glares at me. I can see the hatred in her eyes. Then she turns to Sierra. “She’s lying just like she did with D. She lied on him and got him arrested.” Everybody around us starts looking at me.
“I didn’t have to lie on him and he got himself arrested.”
“Bullshit, you told on him. Nobody else could have except you,” she snips.
“Well, it wasn’t me, so you can just keep on believing whatever you want,” I say to her, then glance at Sierra. She doesn’t say anything because we both know the truth. She told the police about Darien, not me. She rolls her eyes and walks away. Cassie is still standing there. “You got something else to say to me?” I ask Cassie. She rolls her eyes and walks away. Everybody else starts walking, too. So after all that, I grab my stuff again and go to work.
I get to Giorgio’s Pizza Place early. Not surprisingly, it’s already getting crowded since it’s the local hangout for just about everybody in the neighborhood. And after school it’s crazy. The place won a few awards as the best pizza in D.C. and had a couple of write-ups in the Washington Post and the Washingtonian Magazine. And even though it looks big, it is still really kinda small. It has booths along the edges and tables and chairs in the middle. There is a counter that spans the whole back wall with a few stools on each side. There is no formal dining thing with a waitress and stuff. It is all order at the counter and then find a seat where you can.
Troy and his football crew are there and so are Li’l T and his mini crew. Giorgio waves me behind the counter as soon as he sees me. He actually looks relieved I am there. He sends me to the back kitchen to grab a white apron and a cap. Ursula comes in right after me and another girl, Nita, after her. We quickly get our stuff together and go out front to start.
Giorgio gives me a quick overview, but I already kinda know the general idea about how stuff works from coming here all the time. But now it’s all behind the scenes stuff I have to learn. So he shows me how to slice pizza and work the warming oven. I also make fries, fill drinks, get rolls ready for sandwiches and transfer the pizza pies to the front counters to cut them in slices. The major ovens and grills are in the back kitchen where they actually make the pizza. The dough and sauce is already made and in the refrigerator.
Since I don’t know the cash register yet, I am working on the front line with Nita. That means I am getting whatever the customers ordered ready while Sierra and Ursula take the orders. They have me running around like crazy. It’s so busy I barely have time to look up, but when I do, I see Gia standing in line talking to some girls I recognize from the neighborhood.
Seriously, she is the last person I want to see, but it’s too late. She turns around and sees me a second after I see her. She smiles and nods. I half smile and nod back. Then one of her girls leans over and says something in her ear. She responds and the other two turn and look at me. Obviously they don’t do the “show and tell” thing me and my girls do.
When it is their turn to order, her friends place the order while she walks over to where I am working on getting the drinks ready. “Hey, you’re Keysha, right?”
I look up over the soda fountain. “No, it’s Kenisha,” I correct. I hate when people get my name wrong, especially on purpose like I figure she just did.
“Kenisha, that’s right. I didn’t know you worked here.”
“I just started,” I say, dumping more ice into the cup, then sticking it under the soda fountain nozzle and pushing.
“I heard you were Ms. King’s granddaughter. So that makes you what, Jade’s cousin, right?”
“No, Jade is my sister,” I say, getting the next cup lined up and ready for ice and soda.
“Oh, I didn’t know Jade had a sister.”
“She does,” I say simply, trying to look busy even though it’s obvious the place has calmed down a lot. Mostly everybody was either sitting and eating or just hanging out talking.
“And I heard you were hanging with D for a while, right?”
She says it loud enough for both Sierra and Ursula to overhear. They turn and look at us. I glance at Ursula. I can see she is checking Gia out. “You heard wrong. I was never hanging with Darien. He was trying to get with me, but that wasn’t gonna happen.”
“So you got him arrested,” she says, rather than asks.
“No,” I say, putting the cups on the front counter harder than I expected to. Some of the soda splashes from one of the cup lids and spills on the counter. I grab a rag and wipe it up. “I didn’t get him arrested. He got himself arrested. That had nothing to do with me.” This conversation is getting old.
“But getting T pulled into that stupid shit did, right? You know they really messed him up after that, don’t you? He didn’t deserve that.”
I stop what I’m doing and look at her. “What?” I ask. “How did he get messed up? Who messed him up?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you, oops, sorry. ’Cause he was telling me all about it the other night when we were together on campus. So I guess when I heard you and he were supposed to be hanging out, that was wrong.”
Okay, I might not know much at times, but I know when someone’s trying to play me. By now her other girls are standing there with her watching us. But at this point I really don’t care. “You know what? Actually, you heard that part right. Terrence and I are hanging out. We are together.”
“If you say so,” she says, snidely.
“No, that’s what I know,” I say definitively.
“Yeah, okay, whatever,” she says, then smiles sweetly, like she knows something I don’t. Then she walks away with her girls. She doesn’t look back even though her two girls do.
“Hey, what’s up, you okay?” Ursula asks, standing next to me now. She grabs a small cup and pours herself an iced tea.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I say, but I know differently. Everything isn’t fine. Gia wants Terrence back.
“It can get a little crazy around here, but you did good.”
“That’s okay. I’m surviving. I’m used to crazy.”
“So what’s up with you and Gia? You know I never liked her,” Ursula says, watching Gia and her friends as they sit down in a booth by the front window. “She always thought she was better than everybody else.”
“You know Gia?”
“Yeah, she used to stay with her grandmother in the summertime when her parents were working in D.C. Then her family moved away, I think to Atlanta or something like that. Then I heard they moved back to the area, outside of Baltimore I think. She used to talk
to Terrence a while ago. Then she hung out with D for a while. Then after that, she started hanging with Terrence again. Darien was too pissed about that. I think what it was is that she liked D ’cause he had money from his dad and other places. But I think she liked T because he’s just a nice guy.”
“So she and Terrence were together.”
She nods. “As far as I know, yeah, but then I heard she dumped him when she moved away. Then you came and it was that whole payback thing with them all over again. Darien knew you and T were talking. I think that’s why he was trying to get to you. It was payback for T taking Gia from him.”
“I was payback,” I say softly.
“Uh-huh, ever since the stabbing when they were kids they’ve been fighting each other one way or another. They fought over you like they fought over Gia before. So, I wonder who she wants this time.” Ursula looks over, seeing someone walking up to the counter. “I gotta go.”
She goes back to the cash register and takes their order, then we all go back to work. After that it gets a little busy again, but nothing like it was before. I see Gia and her friends get up to leave. I watch her go. She never turns back to even glance in my direction. Before Ursula wondered who she wanted back. I know the answer to that question. It was obvious. So as far as I’m concerned, the line is drawn. There is no way she’s getting lawn mower guy.
CHAPTER 10
Do You Hear Me?
“Sometimes I feel like I talk and nobody hears me. I know they’re out there, they’re just not listening. Hey, I do have something to say.”
—Twitter.com
It’s still early when I get home from work. As soon as I walk in I see my grandmother sitting in the living room. The room is half dark with just a low light on in the corner. She isn’t reading or watching television, she’s just sitting there with her teacup beside her on the table. For the first time in a long time, she looks really sad and really old. The last time she looked like this my mom had just died. At the time, I was so into myself I didn’t even realize I wasn’t the only one hurting. My grandmother had just lost a daughter. I walk in and stand just inside the doorway leaning against the wall. I don’t know if she even heard me come in. “Hey, Grandmom,” I say, trying not to startle her. “I’m home.”
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